A corporate blog may reveal more than you want to without revealing anything at all. (That's PR Blogger Klaus Eck.)

In order to succeed a blog must be spontaneous, fun, news-oriented and irreverent. If it sounds like a corporate communication it will be treated as such, and either be ignored or laughed-at.

There is a risk the blogger may reveal more than you want known, about corporate strategy or what you're really up to. And, let's face it, most corporations are sausage factories, on the order of Ricky Gervais' The Office or Scott Adams' Dilbert.

How can you avoid this? Some good advice follows:

1. Have an outsider do it. An insider has better things to do and they're too close to the story.
2. Make the blog about your space, the lifestyle or industry you're a part of, and not about the company.
3. Think of the blogger as a reporter. Encourage insiders with something to say to run their stuff by him (or her), but to understand it's going to be dressed to go out before it goes out.
4. Lay down the "thou shalt nots" beforehand, but don't pre-screen. Nothing takes the life out of a blog more than editing.
5. Put the blog in a unique, corporate name, so if you fire the blogger you lose no equity in the blog.
6. Encourage feedback, and let the blogger pass it along through the chain of command. The blogger's supervisor can be a gatekeeper for this communication.

Most of all, know what the blog's going to be about, its purpose and goals, before you start out. Have measureable goals, evaluate progress based on the goals. And pay enough to make this worth a blogger's while -- think of it as corporate outreach, which is different than corporate communication because it's pro-active.

And if you need more help with your corporate blog, I'm in. And I like checks.